I have this flaw, (and before you say anything i know what you're probably thinking - how could someone come as close to perfection as Jonathan and still have flaws?), but it's true I am not perfect. My close friends have often referred to it as a certain "moral flexibility" but in all honesty I think it's more akin to just flat out not caring about certain things in life. It would be difficult for me to explain what these things are in just one post and because I'm the laziest busy guy you'll ever meet i'm not going to even try. Instead you'll just have to get to know me if you don't already. But forget all of that because I'm not writing this post to tell you about my moral shortcomings, but to tell you that i was truly inspired last weekend.
It wasn't a particularly fascinating story for me at first because it didn't contain hobbits, wizards, space travel, or any of the other truly crucial (yet truly nerdy) elements that all good stories must contain. It was instead about a CPS (child protective services) agent calling a friend.
So the story goes... One of the pastors at St. Marks gets a call late Friday night from a friend wanting to talk and release some job related frustrations. He had just finished assessing a family case and made the determination that the child should be removed from a possibly dangerous home situation. And this is where his problem began. Being late Friday night the case worker needed to find housing/shelter for the newly removed child but couldn't because all of the shelters and volunteer homes that take in children were completely full. So now the guy is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He can't let the child stay at home...it's too dangerous. He can't find a shelter to take the child in... they're all full. He can't bring the child home to his family... it's not allowed. So he's forced to keep the child with him at the CPS office until Monday morning when the shelters begin accepting kids again. And he has to find another CPS agent to stay with him.
My first thoughts were "WTF?" are there really so many children who need temporary shelter that all of the san antonio options are full? And then I began thinking about the child. It's one thing to be taken away from your home, no matter how bad the situation, it's another thing to have to live in your case workers office for three days. My mind raced with all the emotions this kid had to deal with in such a short period of time.
Becoming a parent recently, this story made me sick with grief and try as I may I just couldn't shake the disgusted feeling. How could a parent do this to their kid? How could a state agency concerened for a childs social welfare let something like this happen? And why have I never heard anything about this process before? I guess because I never gave it much thought, I assumed all kids taken from their homes went to other homes without complication.
Anyway, my suggestion is this. Would we as a community - a house of hospitality - be willing to provide temporary (3-5 days from what I understand) housing for children in this situation?
I look forward to hearing your responses, whether they are for or against.
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2 comments:
I think it's a wonderful idea, Jon. Do you know if situations like this arise very often? I think it would require a considerable amount of flexibility on our part as a community, a willingness to allow God's time to interrupt "our" time through the "unplanned" arrival of a little child, and without the nine month notice we normally get--but this is what it means to learn how to welcome the stranger.
As I think more about it, it strikes me that hospitality directed to children may be a good fit for the stage of life we are in as a community. Having many young children as our own would create might create a more welcoming space for a child to come into than might otherwise be the case. It would also be a great opportunity for our children to learn and participate in the gift of hospitality in a more direct way.
One other thing to think about is how making short-term foster care a missional priority for us might influence where we live and who we allow to come around. For example, CPS very well might object to releasing a child to stay at the CW.
Anyway, those are just a couple of things that come immediately to mind. Thanks for bringing this to our attention and starting the conversation.
"Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me" (Mat. 18:5)
John,
I am so encouraged by your writing. You heard of a problem, were inspired/outraged and are now trying to move to a concrete action. Whether we care for children or not, this is the direction that I hope we can all move in. Thanks for your courage to be willing to go to hard places.
Now...as to whether we should take in foster children, I have no idea. I think that will depend on what housing/living situations look like. I think that CPS would not be willing to place a child in a "community". (Maybe I am wrong) They would probably require the child to go to a family.
Would we be willing to support/care/feed/clothe/etc. a child and family signing on the dotted line as a community during a transitional weekend? I think that we would all do that today or tonight. In 3 or 4 phone calls that would be taken care of.
Most of you know that over a year ago we had two different girls that Rachel had become close to stay with us for different periods. One girl stayed 3 or 4 days. Another just a night. We had invited both to live with us initially for a few months but due to different circumstances each chose to leave when they did and return to what we felt were unsafe environments.
Looking back on that we learned so much. A couple things we realized is that is was super hard on our marriage because we were not doing so well at the time relationally. Also, we realized that is was really hard to do as just a couple.
I am not sure where I am going with all this. As our family is going through transition right now (as all of us seem to be), I am not sure where I am. Part of me says bring them all in. We can sleep two on the futon, two more on the yoga mats, another on the couch. Experience tells me that using reason and wisdom works better. I think that communal pooling of gifts, resources, wisdom, and discernment on a case by case basis would be best at this point.
Is this making sense anymore?
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